AT&T Claims Alcatel-Lucent Software Bug To Blame For Sluggish Uploads

If you have been paying attention to the mobile news flow this week,
you're probably aware that AT&T has been dealt another beating. Yes,
another one. The company already takes a lot of flack for reportedly
dropping calls in congested cities and the like, and now consumers are
claiming that AT&T is throttling their 3G upload speeds,
particularly noticeable on the iPhone 4 which has a SpeedTest app to
prove it.

The numbers started out small, generally in New York City. Most people
assumed that it was just a typical "clogged NYC" problem that would fix
itself in time. But then more and more users from more and more cities
began to chime in, and it looked like AT&T had yet another real
issue on their hands. Turns out, the whiny consumers weren't wrong in
this particular case, but they may be wrong in their assumptions.

Many assumed that AT&T was intentionally throttling the rates in
order to deal with the influx of new iPhone 4 users. According to
AT&T, that's just not the case. In fact, it's more of a typical
error than many may have originally thought. AT&T relies on a few
different equipment makers in order to provide service to end-users, and
the carrier has now come forward saying that they, along with partner
Alcatel-Lucent, have identified a software defect that is causing the
issue in some areas.

Naturally, the statement is about as vague as it gets, but it's good to
hear that AT&T isn't happy about it and will be working hard to
restore upload speeds as soon as possible. The full quote is below, and
if you're still struggling to upload, just hang tight. As tough as that
may be.

"AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect -- triggered under certain conditions – that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices."